Who wrote this programing saying? "Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live."

> Always code as if the guy who ends up > maintaining your code will be a > violent psychopath who knows where you > live.

I found this at somebody's blog, and it introduces as Rick Osborne's. But I google this, and other people says: Martin Golding's, John Woods' and Damian Conway's... Yes, Damian Conway used this quote in "Perl Best Practices" (2005) but Damian doesn't mention who wrote it.

Does anybody know who the real author of this aphorism is?

I thought ChrisW's research was right, and I tried to confirm it by doing the same thing. I found John Woods' name in 1991 in this thread: Usage of comma operator

> Bill Mitchell View profile More > options Sep 26 1991, 1:57 am In > article <[email protected]> [email protected] > (John F. Woods) writes: > >[...] > >Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a > >violent psychopath who knows where you live. Code for readability. > > > Damn right!

So maybe John Woods?

Aug 22, 2014: Link is updated.

Its earliest appearance on Google Groups is unattributed in the sig of a post by Martin Golding in 1994.